Teaching supply chain management through global projects with global project teams

Production and Operations Management, Spring 2000 by Kopczak, Laura Rock, Fransoo, Jan C

TEACHING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH GLOBAL PROJECTS WITH GLOBAL PROJECT TEAMS*

In this article, we describe the Global Project Coordination Course, a course in which project teams composed of three students from each of two overseas universities execute company-sponsored projects dealing with global supply chain management issues. The $75,000 to $100,00 contributed in total by the three to four sponsoring companies funds all course expenses. We assess the benefits and challenges of the use of cross-cultural project teams with diverse educational backgrounds. We conclude that the course provides a unique and effective vehicle for furthering students' knowledge of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, improving understanding of "soft" issues, and training students to work in diverse, global, cross-cultural project teams.

(SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, EDUCATION, PROJECT COURSE, INTERNATIONAL)

1. Introduction

This article describes the Global Project Coordination Course (GPC). The GPC is a Master'slevel course in which three students from each of two universities on different parts of the globe form a joint project team to work on a company-sponsored project that addresses a global business issue. The sponsoring company contributes $25,000 to cover course expenses for that project. The course was started in 1996 by Professor Hau L. Lee at Stanford University, working with his counterparts at two "partner" universities: Dr. Jan Fransoo at Eindhoven University of Technology and Professor Mitchell Tseng at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The course has since been expanded to include the National University of Singapore and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Fourteen projects will be completed under the GPC structure in 1999.

We focus here on the section of the course that we teach. This section teams 9-12 students from Stanford University with 9-12 students from Eindhoven University of Technology to work on 3-4 projects dealing with global supply chain management issues. Both Stanford and Eindhoven have a tradition of requiring students to do company-sponsored projects (see Wouters and Van Donselaar 1999 for a description of another project-based SCM course taught at Eindhoven).

Many of our students will take jobs in which they will work in or lead global project teams to implement supply chain innovations. These teams will represent multiple sites within the same company, as well as multiple companies within the same supply chain. This course has been structured to simulate this setting to provide students with critical skills required for this type of work. As will be described, we have found the course to be an ideal vehicle for improving students' capabilities in four areas:

Project management and consulting skills

Knowledge of supply chain management (SCM) and information systems (IS) theory and how to apply the theory in a real setting

Understanding of "soft" SCM issues

Ability to work effectively in a global, cross-cultural project team with a diverse set of skills and knowledge.

The course bears some similarities to a course that is taught at USC (Kumar and El Sawy 1998); in both courses, students learn to integrate SCM and IS concepts and apply them to a real-world project sponsored by a global company. The GPC, however, is unique in three ways. First, students work in global, cross-cultural project teams with diverse educational backgrounds. This simulates the kinds of project teams that they will work in when they graduate. Second, the course goes beyond a 1-day (overseas) field trip to the sponsoring company; there are at least three face-to-face meetings with the sponsor and frequent teleconferences and videoconferences. Unlike the USC course, the GPC commences and concludes with "live" multiday meetings of the project team (companies included), one at Stanford and the other at Eindhoven. In between, the students have weekly or bi-weekly conference calls and videoconferences with the company, and make 2-day visits to at least two company sites in Europe and the United States. Third, since the focus is on SCM, students typically visit or interview multiple companies and multiple sites of a single company and so must understand the different viewpoints of the various companies and sites. They must also deal with issues of trust, confidentiality, and power, and differences in cost accounting systems. The project scope often includes defining how the solution can be "sold" to supply chain partners. We will elaborate on these unique aspects of the course and how they affect learning in Section 4.

In addition to training future practitioners, the Global Projects Course supports our universities' goals of advancing the theory and practice of supply chain management in other ways (see Figure 1). On the research front, by solving a company's specific problem, the course professors develop an understanding of a real-life problem on which to base development of relevant and generalizable theory. It also builds a bond with the company, which fosters continued cooperation, making it easier to work with the company to obtain feedback on ideas, real-world examples and company data as the research progresses.